SLROC Forum

I hope this is being posted in the right place!

My name is Richard Dover (you may have heard of me re Scotia Winch Challenges?) and I've been asked by Lifesavers Scotland to head up their 4x4 section in time for winter.

Lifesavers Scotland is a charity provinding out of hours, emergency transport for NHS Lanarkshire and has been on service for almost 12 months. Similar in concept to Blood Bikes, the charity has a small fleet of motorbikes and cars that are used to transport pretty much anything the NHS needs on weekends and public holidays free of charge. Normally they would use taxis or couriers for routine stuff but where the needs is especially urgent (e.g. organs for transport) an ambulance, paramedic or Police vehicle would be taken out of service. Our vehicles are fully liveried and equipped with blue lights and sirens and our Service Providers (drivers) are all qualified to drive using 'blues and two's'.

Obviously, like most charities, we run on a rather worn shoestring and we are actively looking for people to volunteer to help with driving, maintenance and fundraising but as I mentioned I'm heading up the winter 4x4 side of things thus my message here.

During foul weather, what is a normally routine becomes urgent and urgent becomes very urgent so we are looking for people with 4x4s who may be willing to be on-call during bad weather to handle the routine jobs leaving our emergency 4x4s to deal with the emergency ones.  I know that a lot of 4x4 owners are involved in 4x4 Response (as are a number of our volunteers) and our need for 4x4 provision happens at a far lower level of foul weather and , we suspect, once it gets to 4x4R call out level we would be off service in any case!

Obviously we're delighted to get more volunteers willing to become fully qualified drivers for which you need an advanced driving qualification (which the charity can help you with) and emergency response training (which we provide as well) so if you are interested in helping at any level then please get in touch. My mobile is 07946 605 067

http://www.lifesaversscotland.org/

https://www.facebook.com/LifesaversScotland

Thanks

Just a wee update ...

I've had a great response so far with 4 or 5 people looking to sign up or find out more. I'm hoping to host an information/training meeting in a couple of weeks so if you are at all interested please give me a call or simply go to www.lifesaverscotland.org and sign up and Jim will pass your details on to me.

NHS Lanarkshire are seriously excited about the prospect of finally having some 4x4 cover. Up until now, when the bad weather hits, they simply have no inter hospital transport so we may become rather popular.

Richard - are you affiliated with any of the 4x4 response groups that run?
(I know of Lothian, Tay, Strathclyde - and there may be a Borders one....)

Richard - are you affiliated with any of the 4x4 response groups that run?
(I know of Lothian, Tay, Strathclyde - and there may be a Borders one....)

A very good question. Short answer no, longer answer ......

We are quite separate from any 4x4 Response group and to be fair we are not providing the same kind of general service.  I approached Strathclyde 4x4 Response back in May or June when I first started working on this and after careful consideration S4x4R declined to support us directly. They have, however, very kindly circulated a letter amongst their members to see if anyone is interested in helping out and a number have contacted me.

Our first training day for anyone wanting to join Lifesavers 4x4 section (this includes existing Lifesavers volunteers and SPs) will be on Saturday 1st November where we'll be explaining how it will be operated, carrying out on road driver assessment followed by [very limited] off road assessment both of which are the only insurance/legal related requirements. Even though I'm one of the normal Service Providers and heading up the 4x4 section, I'll be doing my 4x4 on road assessment then my blue light 4x4 assessment and then the off road stuff as well before I can go on service! Bureaucracy is kept to a minimum so there's more time to do the good works!

If further inducement is needed then there'll be butties and tea/coffee galore as well.  If anyone is interested then please get in touch so I can invite you to come and find out all about it.

Bump

We now have 7 coming to the training day on the 1st November and anyone still interested should drop me a pm, email me to rdover@baymed.co.uk or call me on 07946 60 50 67.

Over the last week, with the high winds, we were called out and over 3 days did over 15 jobs. By all accounts NHS Lanarkshire is rather excited at the prospect of having a transport service when they've never had one before.

Order of the day on the 1st will be meet and greet at 10am, volunteers going out for 1 hour driving assessment with our instructors whilst the rest can do the 'marginal driving conditions' assessment. Neither is heavy duty, its just that Lifesavers needs to be able to prove that everyone driving on their behalf has been shown to be "competent and safe" to keep the Insurers happy :-)

For obvious reasons I'm not going to put my home address on the internet so please get in touch if you at all interested in helping out in any way.

Cheers

Last call for this Saturday's training day.

During the recent stormy weather, the normal inter-hospital transport was massively overstretched and we did a whole host of urgent jobs so we know our 4wd Section going to be well appreciated.

We have a couple of places left and we're starting to plan our 2nd training day for early December.

If you are interested or know anyone who might be then get in touch

Possibly interested as I don't do response work anymore. What areas are you looking to cover as I'm in Dundee.

Thanks John, but as my OP mentioned we are only covering NHS Lanarkshire just now. We are always looking for non driving volunteers to hep fundraise, carry out vehicle maintenance etc but I suspect that Dundee is a little too far to come.

If your register interest through www.lifesaversscotland.org you'll be kept up to date.

Cheers

Saturday's 'training day' went very well and as I've not had any reports of botulism as result of my cooking I'll put the whole thing down as a success!

We had 8 people come along with a range of vehicles, experience and ability and we managed to get everyone assessed for on-road driving with most being keen to get their advanced driving training under way ready to get on-service for our normal out of hours service as well as being ready to help out in the 4WD Section.

The off road stuff, which was really a simulation of driving in really bad road conditions, was interesting for everyone and I hope we all learned a few things (I was assessing and I learned loads about the different cars). Each assessment was essentially a quick 5 minute drive around my field, up and down a slippy slope and across a lumpy track as if going over kerbs hidden by snow.

We even had time to get Gerry's 90 pickup horribly stuck and recovered twice (he's only recently bought it and wanted to see how us competition boys do it) and then we put a fully loaded 110 Paramedic Ambulance through a slimy bog to show John how to safely use his winch and that even Ford Rangers have their uses ... as a ground anchor ;-). This isn't part of what we do but it seemed rude to drive past a nice wee obstacle not drag someone through it ;-)

My thanks must go to everyone who gave up half of their Saturday to come along and offer their time, effort and cars.  We already have another group waiting for our next training day and we should stress that not everyone is using a full on 4x4, we have a BMW 3-series X drive, a Volvo XC and an Audi A4 Alldrive being brought along next time (and a Jimny etc).

Our next training day is pencilled in for Saturday December the 6th and if you are interested in coming along, even if only to find out more about Lifesavers Scotland and taste my lovely egg and bacon rolls, please get in touch.

Richard
07946 605067
rdover@baymed.co.uk